“You could be a kid for as long as you want when you play baseball.” ~ Cal Ripken, Jr.
Β© The Baseball Bloggess, 2021 regular season
Kids, these days.
The Virginia Cavaliers will play Dallas Baptist in the Columbia, SC best-of-three NCAA Super Regional which begins today (Saturday) with Game 1 at noon EST. (It airs on ESPNU.)
All baseball is good baseball, but there is a wonderful je neΒ sais quoi to college baseball.
Where something like this can happen to a team that, just a few weeks ago, wasnβt even expected to make the post season …
Columbia, SC Regionals last weekend.
Where something like this can happen on a Tuesday:
Tuesday. Game 5, ODU vs UVa, Columbia, SC Regionals.Β
Where Dippinβ Dots (!!!) can become a storyline …
Virginia closer Stephen Schoch. National Treasure.
β¦ and it leads to this β¦
Cookies and Cream. Rainbow. Banana Split.
The winner of this best-of-three Super Regional will join the winner of the seven other Super Regionals at the College World Series in Omaha next week.
Ahhh, sports.
Β© The Baseball Bloggess
Please cheer for Virginia.
πΈ βοΈ πΉ
The Baseball Bloggess 
You know Iβm yelling against TX in TX!!!!!
Nancy
>
You are my hero!
Well, the OU women won the Softball World Series, so there is contentment around here. So why not…”Go Cavs”
v
The Softball World Series was fun and OU was great … Giselle Juarez, just wow! Welcome to Hoos’Nation, v. … we’re fun, too!
The counter argument is this: I hope after this weekend you get back to writing about dem Os. How about rooting for the Patriots, with baseball being their ONLY Div 1 sport out of their 15 sports? I’m not saying getting them is a lucky draw, but really, Dallas Baptist University in the NCAA Super Regional? (Note to self, my team and a few others lost last weekend and are not here, so, no bitterness at all…).
Austin Hays is back! I promise, I’m keeping on the Birdland pulse, too. But, you gotta root for irrepressible Virginia closer Stephen Schoch … hometown Laurel, Maryland … comes to the University of Virginia by way of UMBC … and is a weird and wonderful mixture of Moe Drabowsky and Darren O’Day! And, his favorite MLB team? Dem O’s. Of course. :)
I have really tried to get into collage ball. We have (or will have, when it’s judged safe again) a diamond nearby, on the UC Berkeley campus- but, I just cannot get used to the aluminum bats! I know: petty, right? Right; I agree, but when a batter makes contact, it’s supposed to go “crack”, not “clonk”. Is that enough to keep me away? So it seems. I’ll take it into my next therapy session.
John … I totally get that. The first college games we went to many years ago … that “ping” of the bat was just complete weirdness. But, there’s something beautiful and carefree in the college game — just the joyfulness of youth that gets lost for many in the pros, I think, when it becomes a *real* job that a player is just trying to hang onto.
After a few games, I got used to that “ping” of the aluminum. Then I came to love it. And, now I think I have cultivated a casebook Pavlovian response — when I hear that first “ping” of the season, it takes my breath away.
Oh, well, then- Thinking of it as a “ping” works much better than a “klonk”. I’ll give that a try. Thanks, Jackie.
Whatever the outcome, those Virginia players are a joy to watch. Thanks for the clips.
They made it to Omaha … and won their first game last night. I wish I was there … but at least I can watch the games on TV!
Sunday night I was watching the playoff highlights with my nephew. Nephew played 3rd for a Div I school that played a few of the schools in the playoffs. It was cool seeing it through his perspective. And being my Twins have entered the Temple of Suck, I’ll now concentrate on the action in the College World Series.
The College World Series is a nice break from Major League disappointment (and, as an Orioles fan, I feel your pain).